Customer Reviews

Beginning .NET Game Programming in C#

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is well written, moves from simple to complex examples, and at a level at which intermediate level programmers can easily follow. The first game samples are based on GDI, and the latter ones on DirectX 9. HOWEVER, the samples have not been updated for the 2004 Summer Release of DirectX, so they are unusable without a lot of tweaking. Hopefully the authors will update the samples (which can be downloaded) to make the book more useable.

I'm not sure the problem the previous reviewer had, but if you already know C# and want to dive into the world of Managed DirectX, this is a great recource.

I've been playing around with DX for about 4 years now so I have a head start in understanding the topic. I thought that the material was perfect for a beginner, and actually wished I had this book back when I was first learning. David clearly states in the introduction that your book isn't there to teach you WinForms and maybe that's the problem the previous reviewer had. If you already know C# this book is a great introduction to Managed DX programming. If you don't know C#, go buy a book on that first.

The first program I ever wrote was in 1984, being a text-based, command-driven NBA basketball game on an Apple IIe in BASIC. My how games have progressed since. Having said that, I'm strictly a web developer, and from behind the comfortable confines of the web browser is about where my programming acumen begins and ends these days. But like most people my age (I'm 30) I grew up playing Nintendo and have long been a fan of video games.

Being a user and not a creator, I'd long wondered how such things were brought to life, and this book does a great job of showing just that for the newbie.

The code and concepts, despite the title, are fairly advanced, and not at all tutorial-driven, so not every line is described ad nauseum. So an open mind is needed to let it sink in. That having been said, the object-oriented nature and accessibility requirements for device hardware for modern video games is adequately described, with some very relevant games used as practical examples. The purpose of, need for, and uses with, Managed DirectX 9 is very nicely done.

The authors use a very friendly voice, and cite several well-known games as exhibits of the fundamentals they describe throughout the text. For example, a Tetris offshoot is described in the book's initial chapter, demonstrating how such a simple game is likely a lot more complex in its design that you might realize, but simultaneously not as laborious as one might think.

This book defines the major areas of concern for creating a great game, being that all elements within a good video game must exhibit some sort of (1) artificial intelligence, (2) spatial awareness, and (3) reactionary behavior in the event of collisions. I also now know I'll probably never be a good games developer, as one should be very patient, be really, really, really good at math, and use some pretty advanced OOP/OOD concepts to create a good game.

Now being aware of the number of skills needed, algorithms with which to be familiar, and areas that are more deeply covered in other specialized books, this book won't allow you to create the next Quake, Grand Theft Auto 3 or Super Mario World right off the bat - but it will get you started.

I'm surprised this book has gotten the reviews it has (I actually ordered it based on them). The errors in the code/instructions are horrendous, and I'm only on the second chapter. (Many steps seem left out) I suppose I cannot understand why someone would write a instructional book and then fail to follow their own steps to check if they work.

That being said, the book is not all bad. I've learned a few neat things from the previous chapter. I suggest, in the future, the author(s) include source for each 'step' in the projects and have others check their instructions. I would be entirely lost without the downloadable source code (apress.com), but it's a shame readers have to rely on it.

If you can, check it out at a library for a week before you buy.

I really don't understand the previous review. I don't think the person even looked at the book. His review says nothing about the book and I think it is a great book.

after all, the author works for Microsoft and is the game guru there. If he doesn't know what he is talking about, nobody does!

I found all the code that I tried to work out of the box, so I suggest disregarding the previous review and trying the book out.

I found this book to be perfect for me. I am a web application developer and do not have a lot of directx, graphic or game programming experience. Therefore this book really addressed my needs. I am already very familiar with C#, architecture, object oriented programming and design and this book really spoke to help me get a grasp on how I would go about writing a game, working with directx and graphics. The examples were great. The included code really helped to give a better understanding of how it all works together. David Weller, Alexandre Santos and Ellen Hatton have put together a very nice introduction for me. I liked that they chose a game that I was well known so that I was not caught up with learning the rules of a new game and could instead focus on the programming learning at hand. I also liked the examples for enhancing the games and suggesting ways to improve them. Game programming is a hobby of mine and will definitely take this knowledge to devising games that hopefully my kids will enjoy.

In programming, one of the single biggest applications is games. The speed of a multigigahertz cpu, plus vast memory and disk space gives you a huge drawing board. Also, since games are a mass market, then you want to code for Microsoft PCs.

In response, the authors show how Microsoft's .NET environment and C# programming within it can be used to make viable games. They start by conceding that the fastest twitch games, like Half Life 2 or Doom 3, can't really be effectively coded using the book's Direct X methods. But they point out that C# is certainly adequate for other types of games.

The book walks you through very basic game algorithms. If you've programmed games before, many of these ideas will be familiar. Like the fundamentals of detection of collisions between 2 objects on the screen.

Naturally, since visuals are crucial, space is devoted to constructing 3D objects and rendering them with various textures. Frankly, for the pure graphics, the book only touches on the algorithms. You will need another text devoted to the latter. But within the space constraints of this book, there is an admirable job of conveying how to write games in C#.

Quick Advice:

Download C# Express from Microsoft's website, it is free right now. Also download the Summer 2003 edition of Direct X.

Everything will compile except Space Wars 3D (I am so happy now, see below). I am missing files, its 3:00 am, I will look for my (or their mistake) in the morning.

Also go to the Apress website to download all the code including the VB.Net version of the book. It seems they left out key files (Like images for chapter 3) for the C# version that you can get in the VB.net download.

My Story:

I got this book because I wanted to learn C# and have some fun. I certainly enjoyed the first 3 chapters. They were very nicely written and friendly, which is why I bought the book. I also like that the book explained the basic concepts clearly (which is all I am looking for right now). So far, fairly self-explanatory, follows with what I already knew and expected (it confirmed how I thought it all worked procedure wise).

However, when I tried the book code in visual studio 2003 I kept getting errors. Mostly from me copying what the book had. I then had to tweak everything to get it to work. I later found it much easier to just load the code from the website. However, this does not help learning if you just compile and view. The step-by-step examples for the later chapters would have been nice for these early ones.

After a short hiatus (6 months of wasteful job searching, which I am still on) I came back to work on chapters 4 onward. I found these to be very difficult to work with. I kept getting errors. After a few 5:00 am nights, I discovered it's not the code it is VS 2003 it just won't run it for some reason. Gives me a .net compilation error. I bet it has to do with patches or version differences of the .net framework.

I was about to bag the book and write a bad review (mostly because I could not find quick help anywhere) when I decided to check Microsoft's website. After downloading their tools and converting the files to VS C# Express everything ran great. By the way, online resources say to use this with 2003, but I keep getting a greater version used error when working with 2003, so they must have done this in 2004. My advice on what to get is above.

So after a bit a fun and a lot of short-term frustration I am happy once more and can continue my studies. My goal is not video games, but research and development for engineering. I just wanted a pretty way to render my results.

To note, Direct X has had some major changes so the book is now dated, but the logic on Direct3D, collisions, and general procedures is still good. Direct Play is out, I am not sure about Direct Sound or Direct Input.

When you buy a book you expect to get higher quality material then what you would find online. Overall, I would say it is better then some information I have found online, but it certainly lacks in certain areas such as better explanation on DirectX functions, though it does a good job where needed. For instance some spots in the DirectX documentation is lacking, the book does a good job of explaining those parts.

Microsoft has plenty of new resources online now including better explanations on what was missing before, so I am unsure if this book is a buy anymore. I will say it is a good first start.

Sorry to say this, but there were some pretty glaring errors in the code listings in the book. Structure of the book did not follow the required code writing to make entry in the programming environment possible without compilier errors. Unfortunately, the errors in the book forced me to rate this lower than four.

Overall, the material and examples were good. I strongly recommend that if you do get this book make sure you download the source code from the website, otherwise your examples will not work, however you can get around these problems if you know C# just requires a little additional head scratching. Authors do know their stuff and source code on website compiles without error. Nice Tetris example at the beginning that will introduce you quickly to some of the basics of gamewriting. Book goes quickly to connecting with DirectX and networking topics.

I got a used copy of David Weller's book: "Beginning .Net Game Programming in C#" from Amazon.
First of all, using the word Beginning in the title of this book is deceptive. It's not a book for beginners in any way.
The author not only assumes you are an experienced Windows programmer, but that you already know how to work with graphics and are more than familiar with Creating Event Handlers using OnPaint, etc.
In the first chapter, in the classic Microsoft style of documentation, he begins by bragging about all the wonderful graphics things you can do with C# like; Gradients, Alpha Blending, Cardinal Splines, Transformation, etc. but doesn't have the courtesy to supply a single code example to show you how to do any of these wonderful things!
In fact, if you leaf through the book page by page, you will find that there is not a single complete code example in the entire book. What the author refers to as "snippets" are nothing more than poor, incomplete code examples. As we reach the first code "example" the author says "The following code shows how to draw a simple red rectangle... " No it doesn't! All it is, is a lonely OnPaint method. The author doesn't bother to explain how to make it work, but proceeds to tack on one of those little Note: fields saying that you need to create an Event Handler. The example supplied however, is an Event Handler for something else entirely! The next example shows you how to create graphics objects from an image but doesn't bother to explain how to import the image! You are expected to magically how to do that I guess.
It is clear that the author: David Weller doesn't even understand the topic material. What he did was go to somebody that DOES understand how to program and got a half dozen cheezy programs which he devoted a chapter each to, with a feeble attempt to tack a bunch of comments inbetween.
If you want to make a Tetris clone and not much else, there's a very slim chance you might get something out of this book. Although you will have to type up pages of code yourself before finding out whether it will even run or not because there is no CD included with the book. The author assumes you know so much about programming already that, quite frankly, if you knew that much, you wouldn't need his lame book.
The author is neither a programmer, nor a writer. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It gives me a big knot in my stomach thinking how many other sincere beginners will end up wasting perfectly good hard earned cash on this complete waste of trees.
Dillinger